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Symptoms
and Sites of Pain Experienced by AIDS Patients
HIV/AIDS is the top single cause of mortality in South
Africa and patients with AIDS present with unique and challenging
symptoms and pain syndromes.
The
objective of the current study was to identify and increase awareness
of the 10 most prevalent symptoms
and 5 most common sites of pain
in patients with advanced AIDS.
A
nurse-led questionnaire was used to collect data, and a descriptive,
quantitative analysis was done. Subjects included 103 adult patients
with World Health Organisation (WHO) stage 4 AIDS. Patients with
impaired cognitive function were excluded.
The
main outcome measures included a list of 30 symptoms, 13 site-specific
pains, age, gender, worst overall symptom and access to antiretroviral
therapy (ART). Results were based on review of data collected between
May 2002 and February 2003.
Results
Results
showed the mean age of patients to be 35.4 years, with females an
average of 4.4 years younger than males. There were a higher number
of female respondents (62.6%) than males (37.4%).
The
10 most common symptoms in order of prevalence were
Of
the respondents 34.4% mentioned pain as the worst overall symptom.
The average number of pains experienced was 2.91.
Females
reported significantly more anxiety, genital sores and pain than
males.
Of
the patients, [only] 3.9% had had access to ART.
Lower
limb pain was the most prevalent pain (66%), followed by mouth pain
(50.5%), headache (42.3%), throat pain (39.8%), and chest pain (17.5%).
Conclusions
Patients
with advanced AIDS in South Africa suffer significantly from pain
and many distressing symptoms. In the light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
in South Africa, reforms are needed to increase knowledge and education
in the palliative management of AIDS.
Centre
for Palliative Learning, Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg.
09/17/04
Reference
D
A Norval. Symptoms and sites of pain experienced by AIDS patients.
South
African Medical Journal 94(6): 450-454. June 21004.
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